I had a go at oil painting a year or so ago and thought I might aswell post some photos, it might interest or inspire someone or not lol.
I am no good at drawing so printed off images that had random interest to me then copied them onto gesso primed canvas by tracing over carbon paper, I then painted them with mainly traditional oil paints, two were done with water mixable oils which I did not like compared to the traditional linseed and turps type. I was not happy with any of them really and with too many other interests never got to practice any more, I will have another go at some point. I think they look worse to me now after a while not seeing them than they did straight after doing them, I did enjoy doing them though and found it quite relaxing. I do intend doing more and hope to eventually get one decent enough to hang on the wall :drool:

I will list them in the order I painted them to see if I improved :scratch: My good friend Keith who I went to school and grew up with is an artist and gave me some pointers on what paints, brushes and general way to go about things. He has a blog with his paintings here http://keithproctor.blogspot.co.uk/, so thanks Keith. I also found Alan Kingwell's videos on Youtube very good too if anyone else is wanting to have a go, he really does have a tallent and like Keith is self taught.
They are all A4 paper size about 12 inches by 8 inches except the two golfers that are about 7 inches by 5 inches.

I liked the look of this old Blacksmith at work image that was black and white so tried this one first.

I thought I would go with the theme of people doing trades at work so did this welder next.

I then found this random picture of a decaying car in the desert and made it my next topic.

The last old car seemed good to do, so this old pick up was next, when I look at it now the background grass behind the cab is shocking :palm:

I liked the old car theme but wanted to try more colour so found this image, I tried to be more detailed in this one and took more time with it.

Next was another image from the net that I just liked, it was an old kodak colour slide from 1940's, this was quick and easy to do compared to the last car one, the track area is too crude and should have been more detailed.

Then for some unknown reason I chose this golfer , I hate golf and know nothing about it and find it rather so strange choice, I think it was to try to do a person and some skin tones.

I then liked the light and dark contrast of this Afgan helicopter picture and something different, sort of back to someone at work theme too.

I had two golfer pictures so decided to do the second one anyway, this one is better than the first I think , the shirt area anyway.

This one was a copy of another painting, I liked the light and shade, this was done in the water mixable oil paint, I did not like this paint and found it hard to work, with it dried too fast and would not blend well. I felt that the whole painting had to be done in one quick go as things got worse with this paint if you went back over an area.

This painting is also water mixable but I hardly thinned the paint and it was more like the traditional oils when un-thinned, I think this is painting is probably the best art wise out the bunch, the colours are a bit brighter in the flesh, I still would not give it wall space mind

Any comments welcome and dont be scared to slag them off either, would be interesting to know which ones people liked best topic wise and also which ones other people thought were the best painting wise too.

The thing that struck me was the accuracy of the paintings because they had been done by someone who actually understood the subject. How many times have you seen TV shots of people welding with Oxyacetylene cutters, using a full arc welding face mask while cutting with a gas axe and arc welding using ordinary goggles. Nice to see Mick getting it right!

Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net

"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!

Thanks for the nice comments Nolic , Steeplejerk and Stanley , I still think there is so much room for improvement but glad people seem to think I am not wasting my time completly . I intend having another go at painting soon. I have posted the same post on two engineering forums I follow too ( madmodder & Metalworkingfun forums that cover all aspects of home workshop type things in case anyone is interested in looking at them ) and have been suprised at the positive comments my paintings have received, overall the Blacksmith and the welders have come out as the most liked, so I think I will go for that type of thing again, its also the thing I like painting the most too and as Stanley says, as I know about these things I like to get the details right.
I met a friend's father yesterday who is 81 years of age, he does pen and ink drawings that are so good its a true shame they are not in print. I am going to try to get some photos as just saying they are good in words can not do them justice, the detail is so indepth you have to see it to believe it , he has done various subjects, I think you would like them Stanley.

So keep watching and there should hopefully be some photos of them and be more of mine over time.